Hasil untuk "Settlements"

Thomas Hallopeau, Joris Guérin, Laurent Demagistri et al.

Mapping informal settlements is crucial for addressing challenges related to urban planning, public health, and infrastructure in rapidly growing cities. Geospatial machine learning has emerged as a key tool for detecting and mapping these areas from remote sensing data. However, existing approaches often treat spatial units independently, neglecting the relational structure of the urban fabric. We propose a graph-based framework that explicitly incorporates local geographical context into the classification process. Each spatial unit (cell) is embedded in a graph structure along with its adjacent neighbors, and a lightweight Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) is trained to classify whether the central cell belongs to an informal settlement. Experiments are conducted on a case study in Rio de Janeiro using spatial cross-validation across five distinct zones, ensuring robustness and generalizability across heterogeneous urban landscapes. Our method outperforms standard baselines, improving Kappa coefficient by 17 points over individual cell classification. We also show that graph-based modeling surpasses simple feature concatenation of neighboring cells, demonstrating the benefit of encoding spatial structure for urban scene understanding.

Balakumar Ravindranath Kunthu, Ranganath Nagesh Taware, Sathish Krishna Anumula

The telecommunications and financial services industries face substantial challenges in inter-operator settlement processes, characterized by extended reconciliation cycles, high transaction costs, and limited real-time transparency. Traditional settlement mechanisms rely on multiple intermediaries and manual procedures, resulting in settlement periods exceeding 120 days with operational costs consuming approximately 5 percent of total revenue. This research presents a blockchain-anchored audit trail model enabling transparent, immutable, and automated inter-operator settlement. The framework leverages distributed ledger technology, smart contract automation, and cryptographic verification to establish a unified, tamper-proof transaction record. Empirical evaluation demonstrates 87 percent reduction in transaction fees, settlement cycle compression from 120 days to 3 minutes, and 100 percent audit trail integrity. Smart contract automation reduces manual intervention by 92 percent and eliminates 88 percent of settlement disputes. Market analysis indicates institutional adoption accelerated from 8 percent in 2020 to 52 percent by April 2024, with projected industry investment reaching 9.2 billion USD annually. The framework addresses scalability (12,000 transactions per second), interoperability, and regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions.

Fredua Agyemang

Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11) focuses on making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Although the goal primarily addresses urban development, its principles also extend to rural areas, but the extent to which South Africa’s legal and policy frameworks empower traditional authorities to contribute to the development of their communities, particularly towards achieving SDG11, remains insufficiently explored. This study investigates how South Africa’s national legislative frameworks on traditional leadership have been applied to support the advancement of SDG 11. It examines the legal provisions within the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, and relevant legislation to determine whether these frameworks provide a strong legal basis for promoting SDG 11 through the empowerment of traditional leadership. This study employs a desktop research methodology involving a comprehensive review of relevant laws, policies, and case law. Secondary data were gathered from case studies, journal articles, books, case laws, and credible internet sources. The findings suggest that the traditional authority system is deeply embedded within the South African Constitution, as well as legislative and policy frameworks, and has been effectively leveraged to advance SDG 11. Key insights emphasise the constitutional and legal recognition of traditional authorities and highlight the enforcement of traditional leadership roles and functions through various legal cases, and SDG 11-aligned programmes in South Africa. The areas where the role and functions of traditional leadership intersect with SDG 11 and rural development include security and safety, community participation, land management and sustainable settlements, cultural heritage and community identity, disaster management, and environmental stewardship. The empowerment of traditional leadership in South Africa has significant implications for achieving SDG 11 and rural development. These implications include enhanced local governance and service delivery, increased accountability and transparency, balanced rural-urban linkages, promotion of environmental stewardship, and the fostering of inclusive development. It also strengthens rural resilience, preserves cultural heritage, promotes sustainable resource management, and improves community engagement. However, challenges related to power dynamics, equity, and the need for policy integration and cohesion must be addressed to ensure that traditional leadership empowerment contributes effectively to sustainable development in South Africa.

Abdul Kholik, Asep Soegiarto, Wina Puspita Sari et al.

Seiring dengan perkembangan teknologi dan minat yang meningkat terhadap fotografi, banyak sekolah menengah yang mulai menawarkan kursus atau klub fotografi sebagai bagian dari kurikulum ekstrakurikuler. Namun, seringkali terdapat kendala dalam menyediakan ruang dan peralatan yang memadai untuk kegiatan tersebut. Dengan merancang ulang ruang fotografi menjadi sebuah Educational Space yang terintegrasi dengan baik di lingkungan sekolah, diharapkan dapat membuka peluang baru bagi pengembangan potensi kreatif dan akademik siswa dalam bidang fotografi. Metode pelaksanaan menggunakan model Hannafin and Peck dalam perencanaan pengabdian masyarakat ini akan mengikuti langkah-langkah yang terstruktur. Model ini terdiri dari lima langkah utama yang mencakup pengidentifikasian kebutuhan, perencanaan, pengembangan, implementasi, dan evaluasi. Hasil kegiatan yang dilakukan adalah dengan tahapan seperti melakukan diskusi terperinci mengenai pembagian tugas bagi tim pelaksana, yang mencakup peran-peran seperti fotografer, videografer, penyusun TOR (Terms of Reference), dan asisten program. Pengimplementasian program mencakup pengenalan fungsi alat, tata cara penggunaan alat fotografi, serta penyiapan laboratorium fotografi di sekolah. Terakhir, evaluasi hasil kegiatan berupa survei dilakukan untuk menilai efektivitas program secara keseluruhan, memastikan manfaat maksimal sesuai dengan tujuan yang ditetapkan.

Mohammad Kakooei, James Bailie, Markus B. Pettersson et al.

Accurate and consistent mapping of urban and rural areas is crucial for sustainable development, spatial planning, and policy design. It is particularly important in simulating the complex interactions between human activities and natural resources. Existing global urban-rural datasets such as such as GHSL-SMOD, GHS Degree of Urbanisation, and GRUMP are often spatially coarse, methodologically inconsistent, and poorly adapted to heterogeneous regions such as Africa, which limits their usefulness for policy and research. Their coarse grids and rule-based classification methods obscure small or informal settlements, and produce inconsistencies between countries. In this study, we develop a DeepLabV3-based deep learning framework that integrates multi-source data, including Landsat-8 imagery, VIIRS nighttime lights, ESRI Land Use Land Cover (LULC), and GHS-SMOD, to produce a 10m resolution urban-rural map across the African continent from 2016 to 2022. The use of Landsat data also highlights the potential to extend this mapping approach historically, reaching back to the 1990s. The model employs semantic segmentation to capture fine-scale settlement morphology, and its outputs are validated using the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) dataset, which provides independent, survey-based urban-rural labels. The model achieves an overall accuracy of 65% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.47 at the continental scale, outperforming existing global products such as SMOD. The resulting High-Resolution Urban-Rural (HUR) dataset provides an open and reproducible framework for mapping human settlements, enabling more context-aware analyses of Africa's rapidly evolving settlement systems. We release a continent-wide urban-rural dataset covering the period from 2016 to 2022, offering a new source for high-resolution settlement mapping in Africa.

Jian Zhou, Xiuzhi Shi, K. Du et al.

Jean-Baptiste Hervé, Oliver Withington, Marion Hervé et al.

With growing interest in Procedural Content Generation (PCG) it becomes increasingly important to develop methods and tools for evaluating and comparing alternative systems. There is a particular lack regarding the evaluation of generative pipelines, where a set of generative systems work in series to make iterative changes to an artifact. We introduce a novel method called Generative Shift for evaluating the impact of individual stages in a PCG pipeline by quantifying the impact that a generative process has when it is applied to a pre-existing artifact. We explore this technique by applying it to a very rich dataset of Minecraft game maps produced by a set of alternative settlement generators developed as part of the Generative Design in Minecraft Competition (GDMC), all of which are designed to produce appropriate settlements for a pre-existing map. While this is an early exploration of this technique we find it to be a promising lens to apply to PCG evaluation, and we are optimistic about the potential of Generative Shift to be a domain-agnostic method for evaluating generative pipelines.

Chen Ran, Yao Xueqi, Jiang Xuhui et al.

The field of human settlement construction encompasses a range of spatial designs and management tasks, including urban planning and landscape architecture design. These tasks involve a plethora of instructions and descriptions presented in natural language, which are essential for understanding design requirements and producing effective design solutions. Recent research has sought to integrate natural language processing (NLP) and generative artificial intelligence (AI) into human settlement construction tasks. Due to the efficient processing and analysis capabilities of AI with data, significant successes have been achieved in design within this domain. However, this task still faces several fundamental challenges. The semantic information involved includes complex spatial details, diverse data source formats, high sensitivity to regional culture, and demanding requirements for innovation and rigor in work scenarios. These factors lead to limitations when applying general generative AI in this field, further exacerbated by a lack of high-quality data for model training. To address these challenges, this paper first proposes HSC-GPT, a large-scale language model framework specifically designed for tasks in human settlement construction, considering the unique characteristics of this domain.

Arthur van der Staaij, Jelmer Prins, Vincent L. Prins et al.

Procedural city generation that focuses on believability and adaptability to random terrain is a difficult challenge in the field of Procedural Content Generation (PCG). Dozens of researchers compete for a realistic approach in challenges such as the Generative Settlement Design in Minecraft (GDMC), in which our method has won the 2022 competition. This was achieved through a decentralised, iterative planning process that is transferable to similar generation processes that aims to produce "organic" content procedurally.

Michael E. Smith, J. Lobo, Matthew A. Peeples et al.

We propose a dedicated research effort on the determinants of settlement persistence in the ancient world, with the potential to significantly advance the scientific understanding of urban sustainability today. Settlements (cities, towns, villages) are locations with two key attributes: They frame human interactions and activities in space, and they are where people dwell or live. Sustainability, in this case, focuses on the capacity of structures and functions of a settlement system (geography, demography, institutions) to provide for continuity of safe habitation. The 7,000-y-old experience of urbanism, as revealed by archaeology and history, includes many instances of settlements and settlement systems enduring, adapting to, or generating environmental, institutional, and technological changes. The field of urban sustainability lacks a firm scientific foundation for understanding the long durée, relying instead on narratives of collapse informed by limited case studies. We argue for the development of a new interdisciplinary research effort to establish scientific understanding of settlement and settlement system persistence. Such an effort would build upon the many fields that study human settlements to develop new theories and databases from the extensive documentation of ancient and premodern urban systems. A scientific foundation will generate novel insights to advance the field of urban sustainability.

S. Sinharoy, Rachel E. Pittluck, T. Clasen

This study examined drivers and barriers of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) policies in urban informal settlements in low and middle-income countries. We conducted a search of peer-reviewed and grey literature published between January 2000 and April 2018. We organized evidence into six domains of drivers and barriers: economic, spatial, social, institutional, political, and informational. Key drivers included donor prioritization and collective action, while key barriers included social exclusion, lack of land or dwelling tenure status, the political economy of decision-making, and insufficient data. Ensuring responsive water and sanitation policies for informal settlements will require inter-disciplinary collaboration and both top-down and bottom-up approaches.

Kaiyang Jia, Weifeng Qiao, Yibei Chai et al.

Abstract Over the past forty years, rural China has undergone dramatic spatial restructuring, and its production functions have gradually become diversified. However, although several studies have examined factors affecting the distribution of rural settlements in recent years, few have focused on rural production functions. To fill this gap, this paper proposes an analytical framework to understand the impact of rural production functions on the spatial distribution of rural settlements and quantitatively analyzes the rural areas of Taizhou municipality by using the bivariate Moran's I method at the township level. In general, the results show that the spatial distribution of rural settlements has different correlations with each type of rural production functions. The distribution has the strongest correlation with agricultural production functions, followed by the industrial manufacturing and service supply functions, while the weakest correlation is with the ecological leisure function. Further, in the high-value areas of the agricultural production function and the ecological leisure function, the distribution of rural settlements is discrete, with low density, a large scale, and a long distance. In contrast, in the high-value areas of the industrial manufacturing function and the service supply function, the distribution of settlements is clustered, with high density, a small scale, and a short distance. Based on the correlations, this paper sketches four types of ideal town-villages construction pattern to guide the optimization of rural settlements layout, including the productivist-oriented evenness pattern, the transit-oriented axis pattern, the idyll-oriented corridor pattern, and the urbanization-oriented integration pattern. This research provides scientific guidance for developing countries in the spatial planning of rural territories and the optimization of rural settlements.

Yan-sui Liu, Yuanyuan Yang, Yurui Li et al.

T. Frederiksen

Abstract In this paper I take a ‘political settlements’ approach to examining the political effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries. The political settlements approach uses an integrated understanding of politics, power and institutional forms to explain how, given different political processes and incentives, the same institutional forms can produce different economic and developmental outcomes. I apply this lens to the CSR practices of large mining companies in developing countries, examining their impacts on local and national political settlements using the Zambian metals mining sector as a case study. Directly, CSR features little in the national debate on natural resource governance in Zambia but local CSR activity is considerable. I find that the CSR practices of large metals mining companies influence the governance of extraction and the possibility of inclusive development with notable consequences for institutions of traditional leadership. The resulting pattern of inclusion and development is argued to result from the interaction of two processes - elite bargaining and coalitions within exclusionary political settlements on the one hand, and CSR practices shaped by risk management on the other. I conclude by arguing that political settlements literature offers a rich seam for future research in the extractive sector if its limitations are addressed.

Paul Jones

Sustainable urbanization policies and strategies are posited as a major tool by which to achieve the sustainable development of growing towns and cities. A major challenge for sustainable urbanization policies and strategies is how to address the complexity of urbanization, especially the ongoing growth of informal settlements and slums in developing countries. It is acknowledged that those living their lives in such housing and settlements suffer greater levels of spatial, economic and social exclusion from the benefits of urbanization that other segments of the urban population. Using a case study approach, this paper examines the range of challenges associated with the growth of informal settlements and slums, seeking to understand how they are positioned via upgrading policies in city urbanization plans and strategies in Indonesia’s third largest city, Bandung. The research finds that there has been a shift in kampung and slum upgrading policy from in-situ solutions to vertical housing towers which appear incompatible in accommodating the way of life practiced in kampung adaptive urbanism contexts. The manner in which city governments manage informal settlements and slums by seeking to reshape and restructure the lifestyles of residents to align with formal market measures has a major impact on existing disadvantaged communities. The paper concludes with a call for greater leadership, political commitment and recognition of contextual responses when developing slum upgrading policies set within urbanization policies and strategies branded as sustainable.

Mengqiu Lu, Luyao Wei, Dazhuan Ge et al.

Abstract Rural settlements represent rural production patterns and social culture in rural territorial systems. This system reflects the interaction processes between human activities and the geographical environment. Exploring the spatial optimization of rural settlements is beneficial, especially for promoting scientific agglomeration of villages, tapping potential village land reclamation, and reconstructing rural areas. We constructed an analytical framework for rural settlement spatial optimization from the perspective of appropriateness–domination. Taking rural settlements layout in Xinyi City of Jiangsu Province in 2016 as a case, we made an iterative operation based on spatial competition and cooperation among rural settlements to obtain a spatial optimization scheme of rural settlements under different appropriate farming conditions. Through a spatio-temporal simulation of various farming radii, and considering the impact of different agricultural scale management levels on the spatial layout of rural settlements, we obtained a reasonable rural settlement layout in the dynamic evolutionary process of farming conditions. On the other hand, we obtained a spatial optimization scheme and development guidance of different rural settlements based on social dominance theory and central place theory through spatial cluster analysis. The perspective of appropriateness–domination provided multi-scenario optimization schemes of rural settlements and scientific guidance for the optimization and reorganization mechanism of rural settlements and rural vitalization.

B. Norman, P. Newman, W. Steffen

The apocalyptic Australian bushfires have challenged the way we plan settlements. What is the future for small urban settlements within fire-vulnerable forests and bushland? Could they create a new model for rural settlements with wider lessons for development in big cities? This paper draws together observations of the 2019/20 bushfire size, intensity and destructiveness and links the fires to the global nature of the climate crisis and an earlier case study that accurately predicted the fire impacts in southeast coastal Australia. The findings are set out in two scenarios suggesting that the fires can lead to a new model for climate resilient development that can flow into larger centres with multiple benefits.

C. Persello, A. Stein

Yanchao Liu

Abstract The p-center location problem in an area is an important yet very difficult problem in location science. The objective is to determine the location of p hubs within a service area so that the distance from any point in the area to its nearest hub is as small as possible. While effective heuristic methods exist for finding good feasible solutions, research work that probes the lower bound of the problem’s objective value is still limited. This paper presents an iterative solution framework along with two optimization-based heuristics for computing and improving the lower bound, which is at the core of the problem’s difficulty. One method obtains the lower bound via solving the discrete version of the Euclidean p-center problem, and the other via solving a relatively easier clustering problem. Both methods have been validated in various test cases, and their performances can serve as a benchmark for future methodological improvements.

Costică Asăvoaie

This study, which is mostly based on a documented information, intends to operate a re-examination of the scientific theories expressed in the Romanian historiography till now, about the placing and the limits of this region, as well as the origin, age and significance of the name „Câmpul lui Dragoș”. Another intention of this study is that of placing the oldest mediaeval settlements from this area in order to be useful for the future sistematic archaeological excavations. In the first part of the study, the author presents his own reasons in searching this subject. There are exposed the main points of view regarding the problems in debate. There are, also, specified the geographical limits of this „Câmpul lui Dragoș” (The Plain of Dragosh). As is to be observed, in the mediaeval documents, the above mentioned toponymical appointed a county situated on the right side of Bistritza river together with the hydrographical basins of the brooks: Măstacăn, Nechid, Dragova and Blăgești. In the middle-age this area was included in the County of Bacău. The general conclusions of the author will be published in the second part of this study.